Apparatus for indicating effective pressures of steam in steam-engine cylinders.



No. 658,53l. Patented Sept. 25,1900. I

w. RIPPER. APPARATUS FOR INDICATING EFFECTIVE PRESSURE 0F STEAIQIN STEAM ENGINE M33125; 1m,

Wiziwsses fizz/enrol:

WWW I Nr'rn TATES ATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM RIPPER, OF SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR INDICATING EFFECTIVE PRESSURES OF STEAM IN STEAM-ENGINE CYLINDERS I SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 658,531, dated September 25, 1906.

Application filed. April 25, 1900.

No. 1113,761, dated December 6, 1899,) of

which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved method of indicating on pressure-gages the pressures of the steam acting on the pistons of steam-engines.

It consists of an arrangement of valves which work automatically in a valve-box by the action of the steam itself and without the aid of any external system of mechanical driving of the valves. I have previously obtained a United States patent, No. 620,182, dated February 28, 1899, for an arrangement to accomplish the same result,but by a method which required that the valves should be mechanically driven by direct or indirect gearing connecting them with the main shafts of the engine. My present invention abandons the mechanical driving and substitutes automatic movement of the valves by means of the difference of pressure of the steam acting on the two sides of the valves.

The figure illustrates the construction of the instrument.

The instrument consists of a valve-box A, which is attached by pipes B and O to each end, respectively, of an engine-cylinder I. The valve-box contains two valvesa driving steam valve D and an exhaust-steam valve E. The driving-steam valve D consists of a simple ball-valve (or other equivalent) working between two seatings, as shown, and having on the side J of the piston passes along the pipe B into the valve-box A above the ballvalve, and this steam having a greater pressure than the exhaust-steam on the side K of the piston which acts below the ball-valve Serial no. 14,261. (No model.)

the valve falls on its lower seating, and the steam from the side J of the piston is in di-' rect communication with the forward pres sure-gage F. The exhaust-steam valveE con sists of a double mushroom-valve, (or its equivalent,) the disks of the valves being placed one at each end, respectively, of a short spindle L and working on their inner edges on two seatings placed between the valves, as shown in the drawing. The valves and their seatings are in such relative positions that when one valve-seating is closed the other is open. Communication with the exhaust-pressure gage N is made by a passage M between the exhaust-valve seatings. The movement of the exhaust-valve is due to difference of pressure. Thus when the piston H is descending, the driving-pressure at J being greater than the exhaust at K, the exhaust-valve E therefore falls and closes communication with the driving side of the piston, but opens communication with the lower or exhaust side of the piston, and the exhaust-steam pressure passes freely through the passage M to the exhaust-pressure gage N. When the engine-piston reaches the bottom, the processes are reversed, the drivingpressure steam being again directed to the driving-gage F and the exhaust-steam being again directed to the exhaust-gage N. Thus each gage indicates continuously the effect of the pressures acting upon it, the gage F giving the mean effect of the driving or forward pressures and the gage N giving the mean effect of the exhaust or back pressures.

The difference between the two readings is the not mean effective pressure.

Having now described my said invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is'

In combination with an engine-cylinder, a

valve-box having pipe connections to oppo- WILLIAM RIPPER.

Witnesses:

W. H. BAIRSTO, O. FAWCETT. 

